In the Los Angeles area, Henry (Chris Klein) delivers pizzas and cleans carpets. Once a promising football star who won a college scholarship, injuries turned him in a new direction. Now, he aspires to be a famous writer and goes regularly to the place where F. Scott died, for he greatly admires our creator of The Great Gatsby. To further his cause, he has joined a "writing group" who pledges to lift each other up in the hopes of future publishing. Among the ragtag groups is an eye doctor (Dylan Walsh) who started the group to support his lovely wife (Teri Polo) who is writing a Russian romance. Also attending regularly are a pretentious young hotshot, who writes a mere sentence at a time, a wannabe Tom Clancy, John (Dennis Farina) who KNOWS he has what it takes and beautiful Hannah (Kaley Cuoco) who seems a bit dim, never having heard of some of the world's top authors. Mysteriously, Henry is in love with Hannah, although she is not an intellectual like him, and he has developed writer's block as a result of his unrequited love. Amid book launches at hardware stores, secret affairs, and desperate attempts to garner agents, who will be the first to make it big? This DARLING film is a winner on many fronts. it is funny, romantic, and spot on in its analysis of would be writers. The cast is wonderful, especially Farina who gave one of his last great comic turns. Viewers will also like the great sets, mighty nice costumes, lovable script and very fine direction. What a would have given to see this terrific film in a big screen setting!

Writers, aspiring authors, and journalists seem to get flack no matter where they turn in an increasingly math and science driven world that, while undoubtedly improving the life and sanctity of humanity through unforeseeable technological and scientific innovations, still inherently neglects the humanity and the eccentric qualities that the aforementioned groups of people work to establish within nearly everything they do. In such times, where opportunities for jumpstarting their writing projects have been given more accessibility but, in return, less professional credibility, we logically turn to other writers to discuss this problem or, ambitiously enough, seek out films to help us deal with the common struggles of a writer, to which Ellie Kanner's Authors Anonymous seemed like a solid bet for a film attempting to profile a group of aspiring writers.

Authors Anonymous never really establishes whether or not it wants to be a practical account of a group of goofy writers whose ultimate goals are to get published and become recognized for what they do or if it the film wants to be a broadly done satire profiling the common caricatures of writers. I have a feeling the film leans more towards the second category than the first, however, that only makes my ongoing review even harsher, for the film not only squanders opportunities and commentary with this approach, when it should be overflowing with them, but also greatly diminishes the resonance this film could have with writers everywhere, myself included.

The film has a plethora of great stars, all of whom I hope to see in better films as soon as possible. The film revolves around a group of aspiring/struggling writers, whom gather at their authors anonymous meeting - although they openly state their names, which defeats the purpose of the group's name, yet I digress - to discuss their stories and their ambitions, while giving and receiving personal feedback. The group is run by Henry Obert (American Pie's Chris Klein), an amiable pizza delivery man and carpet cleaner, who is suffering from a wretched case of writer's block and disillusioned by his monotonous existence all the more. That is until he meets Hannah Rinaldi (The Big Bang Theory's Kaley Cuoco), a woefully dim but cheery and attractive writer who, while never reading a book in her life, let alone naming a famous author, manages to score a publishing deal for the book she wrote. Once she manages to become a regular at the authors anonymous (but not really) meetings, she is quickly envied by the other authors in the group, including the uptight David Kelleher (Jonathan Banks), the do-nothing William Bruce (Jonathan Bennett), and the annoyingly delusional but incomparably ambitious John K. Butzin (Dennis Farina), who aspires to one-up everyone in the group by looking to get his novel published and made into a movie, directed by Clint Eastwood, to disastrous results.

The way I see it, each author is supposed to represent a different kind of author we encounter or read about. While Henry is optimistic, he's also burdened by the inability to capture his thoughts adequately on the page, while Hannah is the kind of person who's ignorance and lack of any real fundamental knowledge of the field are neglected by others and, of course, she walks away with a publishing deal. Meanwhile you have David, who carries a tape recorder along with him to voice his spur-of-the-moment ideas, however, never actually using them, William, who is simply in it for the ride, talking a lot but never actually writing, and John, the writer who deludes himself by saying all is going well and on the up-and-up for his writing career when it's anything but.

Yet, writer David Congalton doesn't really acknowledge or dive into the purpose of these caricatures, making them lumber through tiresome setups with every scene, allowing their same flawed personality traits to be seen. This does nothing more than erect a tired, one-note joke where we become so caught up in the character's naivety and inherent stupidity that we don't care anymore. We came to see a version of ourselves, but all we get are the broadstrokes of actual human beings that exercise in that odd cinematic void where complete and total stupidity is passed off as reality. Not to mention, the film is also shot like a reality show, ironically adding realism to the one film this year that has about as much realism as Transformers: Age of Extinction.

Authors Anonymous bears some positives amidst a whirlwind of issues. The cast is always watchable and committed to their roles, regardless of how obnoxious or undercooked they are, the film bears the kind of original setups that you're interested in, even on a small note, just to see where they end up, and the film isn't without certain moments of humor. However, Authors Anonymous, like a muddled adventure book, lacks an identity or a resonance with broadly-drawn satire or attempts at a comedy authors can relate to, never identifying with either and unfortunately failing if classified as both.

Starring: Chris Klein, Kaley Cuoco, Johnathan Banks, Johnathan Bennett, and Dennis Farina. Directed by: Ellie Kanner.

This is a story done semi-documentary style about a group of amateur authors who read their writings to the group and bounce off ideas. Their writings overtly and boringly reflect their own personal life. The bulk of the movie being consumed by interviews.

Hannah Rinaldi (Kaley Cuoco aka Penny) the stereotyped dumb blond sends ripples through the group when she secures a book deal.

The film attempts to be a clever quirky indie, but falls short of being either. I found the interview scenes boring and pretentious. It was like a constant narration. Perhaps the funniest part was the writing of Colette Mooney (Teri Polo) who was terribly attempting to write a Russian novel, yet everyone gave her encouragement. And BTW the heroine of her tale was suddenly having an affair with a young peasant man.

For hard core indie fans. A subtle comedy, but not a great one.